A New Dawn
by carliecullenx
Summary: Pre-Twilight. What's happening with the Cullen's before Bella arrives? What do they think of Bella? And what is happening to Alice because of Bella's arrival?
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer: I don't own the Twilight Saga, Stephenie Meyer does!**

**A/N: Hope you like it!**

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Chapter 1

Edward POV

The angry tornado of wind caught the rain up and struck it against the house, I watched glumly as I traced the pattern of the rain slithering painfully slowly down my window. Outside, the storm was picking up causing the trees to strain against the force of the gusts of wind; the storm though loud was hardly deafening to my sensitive ears, more like irritating background music. I huffed as I looked around my room and noticed my school bag and noticed those stupid, futile books protruding out. I had better finish all my work for tomorrow; it would upset my family if I endangered them by threatening our perfect facade in anyway that may cause suspicion among the people here in this small, confined town. I sighed as I thought of the reason for the façade. Our dark secret. That I could share with no one but my family, the Cullen's.

I wished to be a million miles away from here - this dark, depressing town - however it was because of that very fact that we came here, we would be well concealed with the average 235 days of rain a year we get here. No one would see what we really are...

I let my mind wander and I thought of how excited everyone in Forks were becoming to the arrival of a new girl to the town. Bella Swan. It was well known that she was the daughter of Charlie Swan, the chief police officer in Forks. The hyper and hysteria over her eminent arrival was pathetic to observe, the boys in my classes at school were practically thinking of her as fresh meat at our school, the thought of this comparison repelled me so much that I convulsed, shaking the chair beneath me, as well as shaking me out of my thoughts.

I finished the homework in a matter of minutes that would have taken humans hours to complete and stood up from my chair. I sighed deeply and ventured off to find the rest of my family and challenge Alice to another game of chess. Of course, I knew I would win...as always!

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Esme POV – One week earlier

I wandered around the home furniture department of the mall in Seattle; I needed to find some new silk material to re-upholster the dining room chairs. After debating between two fabric patterns I finally chose my favourite and began to head to the counter to ask for the assistant to cut it to the correct measurements when I saw Charlie Swan. He was over in the linen section rubbing his temple, obviously confused and flustered over what bed-linen to purchase. I saw in one hand he held pink Barbie bed-sheets and in the other some depressing black bed-sheets, I sighed then muffled my laughter as I hurried over and patted him on the shoulder,

'Hi there Charlie! How are you?'

Charlie seemed very relieved to see me, 'Oh hello Esme, I'm so glad you're here! You see, umm... I'm a bit muddled, my daughter Bella is coming to live with me and I'm trying to choose some bed-linen. Do you know what bed-linen teenage girls like!?'

'Of course I'll help! Is she a girly girl?'

Charlie glanced down and scuffed his foot on the carpet, 'Ermm, I don't really know, I don't get to see her very often so I don't know what stuff she would like....'

'That's ok! I'm sure I can pick out something she'll love!' I jumped in, not wanting to embarrass Charlie, I could tell he was nervous about Bella coming and obviously wanting her to feel like she fits in and likes Forks. I led Charlie over to the latest linen that had been released and picked up a deep purple bed-linen set with a modern flower print on top. 'Here, what do you think?'

'Oh! That looks much better than anything I picked out!' He smirked then exploded into infectious laughter causing me to join in too, 'Thank you so much Esme! You've been so helpful; I'll make sure to tell Bella how you saved her getting any Barbie linen!!'

'That's quite alright Charlie! I'm pleased to help you, I do it all the time so its basically second nature to me now!'

'Well, I'm going to buy this now. Thank you again Esme, I'm very grateful!'

'That's alright! Bye Charlie.' I smiled to myself as I watched Charlie walk away. He was such a good father, trying earnestly to get everything just right for his daughter when she moves in. It was obviously a big move for her, it was practically public knowledge that Bella was moving all the way from Phoenix. I shook my head at the gossips in Forks, I could just imagine what it would be like if they found out _our_ secret...

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Alice POV

I glanced up from the chessboards to Edwards face, scrunching up my eyes, I saw Edwards's next moves however he did too and he picked out from my head the moves I would take back. This carried on for only a few minutes with Jasper watching us, chuckling every now and then. Eventually in exasperation I flicked over my King seeing that I wouldn't be able to win.

'I give up! You are so annoying Edward! I hope you know that!' I jumped up and twirled round to see Jasper watching me with an adorable smirk on his face. I flitted to his side; I simply smiled at him, looking deep into his golden eyes, they were like large pools that I constantly fell in, as I was overcome by his beauty. He was so gorgeous and it surprised me daily – how could I be so lucky that this God was mine? Before I could say anything to Jasper, Edward was soon ruining our little moment, as usual. I huffed.

'Oh stop being so melodramatic and soppy Alice!' I spun round to glare at Edward, god what was his problem!

'_I'm_ not the one with a problem!' I heard Jasper growling from behind me but I ignored him and looked at Edward straight on, staring at him straight in the eye. I was certain that Jazz could feel the anger radiating off us, it was bad for Jazz to feel this, it hurt him so much and it made everything harder... I hated it whenever he felt like this but I couldn't stop myself. Edward was just such a moron sometimes.

Oh yeah? Whatever Edward... I'm not gonna' be sorry that I have someone to spend the rest of eternity with and you don't. It's not my fault! It's your own. Man! You've had hundreds of girls that were in love with you! Throwing themselves at you! And what do you do? Oh yeah, I remember Edward. You just ignore them, you look the other way. No, actually it's more than that Edward. You don't even notice them. So for god's sake, don't have a go at me if I'm happy! I mean don't I deserve it? Is that it Edward? Huh?

He didn't say anything; we just stood there looking at each other in awkward silence.

Oh don't you dare go all quiet on me now Edward! Come on! Spit it out.

I felt Jazz's hand grip me round the waist, ready to throw me out the way in case this turned ugly. But I knew better, Edward wouldn't do _that_. Of course he would be an idiot and piss me off anyway. Edward's chest began to rise and fall much more rapidly as he got angrier at me. I waited patiently for him to explode, for some reason slightly smug.

'Shut the hell up Alice. I don't want one of those pathetic girls anyway; they just want to have a boyfriend on their arm. I'm not gonna be with some fake blonde who just wants to use me to be more popular. It's just...' He trailed off with a grunt in disgust of most of the girls at our school.

How true he was, all the girls here in Forks, well not just here but everywhere. They were all needy, fake girls who felt like they had to prove themselves to the school by having a boyfriend and therefore becoming popular. I understood where Edward was coming from. They all dyed their hair bleach blonde – so unattractive and usually incredibly badly, causing several girls each month to be walking around with a green blob on their head – and spray tans that were ridiculously obvious as we lived in rainy Forks, they were all on 'diets' which basically meant they were starving themselves. They wanted to be the next top model; it was a rarity to find someone who had a serious aspiration. I only knew of Angela, she was a sincerely nice girl, and I knew she wanted to be doctor as she loved to care for people. I sighed, if only everyone was like Angela... Edward might actually like someone like her... I suddenly imagined Edward with Lauren hanging off his arm and I folded in half clutching my stomach in a fit of laughter. I couldn't help myself, it was hilarious. And impossible. No matter how much she fluttered her eyelashes at him. There was no way he would go out with _her_. I was engulfed in another round of laughter then and fell to the floor dragging Jazz down with me as he still had a firm grip around me.

In the next split second, I was no longer shaking with laughter. Instead I was writhing in pain. I clutched my head as the agony coursed through my veins, but the central source of this pain was from my head. My body was trembling as ripples shuddered its way through my body. What...What was happening!

'What the fuck is going on?!' Edward shouted but I only managed to hear him, it was as though the pain was slowly beginning to shut out my surroundings.

'Alice! Alice, what's wrong? What happened? Tell me! Alice!' I felt Jaspers hands shake me gently, anxiously wanting to help me but with no idea of what was happening.

I felt as though I would burst into tears if it were possible. This pain reminded me of so long ago. My transformation it was nearly as painful as it had been then. I looked up into Jaspers eyes, terrified. I tried to sit up slightly and I peeled open my lips and managed to squeak out a single word. 'Bella.'

Just as I spoke I fell back to the ground and lay in a heap of limp bones on the wooden floor. Allowing the images to flit through my mind as I lay there, helpless.

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**A/N: Ok, please review! I'm not sure about this story but it would be great to see if you actually like it!**

**carliecullenx**


	2. Chapter 2: Pain

**A/N: What? Are you serious! This is the next chapter of A New Dawn which I've waited for since March? Yes, you're correct - I know I can't believe it myself :p Well I hope you like it, it may be quite different than what you expected... ;)**  


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Chapter 2: Pain

Bella POV

Forks. Huh. Well that was an ingenious name for a town.

Charlie said I'd like it here but I knew I wouldn't, I was used to hot, sunny Phoenix where there were plenty of shops and cinemas close by and there was always something to do there. I had friends there. But here, _in Forks_, I didn't have any friends and I doubted I would – they were probably all country bumpkins with spots, glasses and braces and I bet they wore those jumpers with a snowman on at Christmas. Anyway I didn't want any friends, I didn't _need_ any friends.

Since Phil had packed me off – he'd said I should be with my dad to help me through this rough time – because my mom had... _died._ Of cancer of course. Human's number one enemy: we didn't have a cure for it yet, instead all we could do was to prolong life. But they'd discovered the tumours too late – it had been aggressive. Aggressive, fast and incredibly painful: for all of us. Each day as I found more clumps of her hair on her pillow I choked back tears but eventually I gave in to them. I had lain down on her bed and cried. I never allowed Renée to see me cry though – I had to be strong, I had to be there for _her._ The doctors had given her 3 months. We didn't get 3 months.

After two weeks I stopped going to school – what did it matter when my own mother was _dying_? She became so weak that she couldn't even leave her bed. I would lie in bed with her; reading her books – the ones she'd always wanted to read, I played her favourite music – a lot of Debussy and I made her favourite meals. She deserved everything so that's exactly what I tried to give her.

In the end we had seven weeks. And now, 2 months after my mom had died I was here in Forks. I wondered whether they knew why I was suddenly here – I guess it would be obvious by how they treated me. After my mom's funeral in Phoenix, everyone was suddenly acting as though we were best friends. People brought Phil and me cooked meals and would even buy our shopping for us. They treated us like invalids, unable to look after ourselves. Of course inside we were dying but we tried to put on a brave face. Each night since mom died I fell asleep to the cries and whimpers of Phil in the next room, this wasn't a surprise to me though, I too was crying each night. But Phil had only been married to Renée for 3 years. 3 years compared to... anything is nothing. It's nothing at all. I also knew that now that I had left Phil alone in that large, empty house, he would fall apart. There was no other route, no fork in the road, no second choice; he no longer had a purpose to live now without Renée.

I missed my friends though. Not my friends when my mom had died – the friends before that. Granted, they were the same people but they had changed. They treated me differently – I was no longer their friend Bella, I was now the poor girl whose mother died of cancer. I hated it. I wanted my old friends back. No – I wanted my mom back.

I guess leaving the sympathetic gazes in Phoenix was the good part about coming here.

Jasper POV

She fell to the ground pulling me with her but she immediately stopped laughing. Instead she was writhing in pain, clutching her head tightly. I felt as her emotions changed swiftly from joyous happiness to pain and suffering, she was worried too, scared and frightened but I didn't know why, even as she answered Edward's question of _'What the fuck is going on?'_ with _'Bella'_. What did that girl have to do with Alice, why was she in this pain? Alice had never been in such pain before when she'd had her visions. Why now? What was so different this time?

Finally she stopped squirming and came to a rest in my arms. She lay there panting for breath as Edward knelt by her. I watched them both as they shared a glance and I felt as they both shared the same feeling of immense fright and worry. But what could there be that would threaten us? Our kind is nearly impenetrable. But I guess the key word there is 'nearly'. There were some creatures in the world that could kill us.

Edward POV

Bella? The girl who's coming here? What does she have to do with anything? Why was Alice in such pain? I didn't understand anything, I didn't have any answers for any of my questions so I stayed as I was, locked in place – my feet were unresponsive, unable to move. I merely watched as Jasper knelt over Alice gently holding her small body. Her body was limp and heavy as the burning pain throughout her body began to fade away to nothing. The flashes of the future were burned into my head now: there was a body – or rather the pieces of a body – burning wildly, the flames leaping higher and higher... then a young brunette girl who was obviously the Chief's daughter Bella, her complexion pale despite the fact that she lived in sunny Phoenix and her big, brown eyes were entirely innocent. However, in the next vision Bella was stood next to the great fire. Her lips were a blur as she spoke so quickly then she slowed down and I realised what she was doing. She was chanting in another language... Latin, '_caedo... abeo..._' she exclaimed as the fire grew even stronger. She turned around then, for a split second she looked surprised, alarmed... but then a feral snarl took over her face, causing her to look like a vicious creature. She lifted up her hood on her cape to hide her face but just before the shadow fell over her eyes, there was something. Her eyes flashed vivid, blood red but as soon as they'd turned red they were plain brown again.

I moved then and knelt down opposite Jasper, next to Alice. She began to sit up and as we looked at each other we knew this wasn't good. This wasn't good at all.

Alice POV

Jazz helped me to slowly stand up on my feet but as soon as I did, I instantly began to fall, my legs collapsing beneath me. Jazz soon swiped me up into his strong arms, ran to the couch and laid me down.

'What happened Alice?' He asked desperately.

'I... I saw Bella and she was… _chanting_. She was chanting over a fire and someone was burning to death… and her eyes! Oh god, her _eyes…_' I trailed off as I remembered her normal brown eyes flashing to blood-thirsty scarlet red for a second. My heart was hammering in my chest as I thought of this and what it meant. She definitely wasn't human, that much I was sure of. She wasn't a vampire either, or of course a werewolf, but what other creatures were there? How could we not have come across any other creatures in the whole time we'd lived for?

I suddenly looked up to see Edward explaining everything in my vision to Jasper. They both looked scared, and they were right to be.

'Alice, do you know who was in the flames? Why was Bella killing that person?' Jasper asked in a flurry of words, needing some answers to all his questions.

Thinking of the fire it reminded me of the pain, as it flooded through my body stemming from my head and how it had felt like it would never end, how it had felt nearly as bad as my transformation as the venom had spread through my body then too… I gasped as I realised…

'_Alice! _Who was it?' Edward reminded me urgently.

I slowly looked up to meet both sets of worried eyes.

'I think… _I think it was me.'_

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_**A/N: Was it what you expected then? What are you thinking on whats happened? :)**

**I'm really enjoying writing this story atm so I will be updating this much sooner - don't worry you won't have to wait... 5(oops sorry guys!) months again!**

**Please review, it will totally make my day! :)**

**carliecullenx**


	3. Chapter 3: Fresh Blood

**Disclaimer: I don't own Twilight, SM does :)**

**A/N: Ok, I realised I had most of this chapter written for 2 months so I finished it off :) Sorry for the wait!**

** And a big thank you to my amazing beta LiGi :)**

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Chapter 3: Fresh Blood

Jasper POV

What! Why was... what was the reason to... Why? Alice had never done anything wrong... what was the purpose of this? Why kill her? After all, it may hurt Alice for a while but it would hurt me forever.

'What... why? Why Alice?' I screeched desperately. I looked between her and Edward in case I missed something they were communicating but instead Edward was frozen in place again.

Alice simply shrugged and began to tremble in my arms. I quickly soothed her by sending waves of calmness over her.

'Don't worry, I'll look after you Alice. She isn't going to be able to lay a finger on you.'

'Jasper, don't you realise? You won't be able to stop her! I mean, we don't even know _what_ she is!' Alice wailed desperately.

I didn't know whether she was right – that we couldn't stop Bella – but I did know we didn't know what she was. And I knew that we had to find out and I would do anything to stop Bella in the mean time.

'Do you know when she'll start at school?' I asked Alice then watched her as she tried to see...

'She starts on... Monday. _Tomorrow_.' Her jaw fell open in terror as she realised that her... _murderer_ would already be in town and we'd see her tomorrow at school. I just had to remember that Bella wasn't going to be able to become a murderer – I was going to stop her, no matter what.

'Edward, we're going to watch her every move, we're going to learn everything about her and we're going to stop her.' I commanded sternly. I would stop at nothing to protect my Alice.

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_Monday_

Alice POV

I saw her straight away as she got out of her old, battered red truck. Her brown hair blowing in the wind... She turned around towards the car park, observing everyone – the groups of people laughing and messing about – then continued to scan the car park and as her eyes landed on us in the corner I stiffened reflexively. She paused, raised her eyebrows minutely then looked past us towards the school buildings.

Jazz held me tightly in his arms and I wiggled myself out of his iron grip. I knew I'd have to face her eventually – it was highly likely that we shared a class but I hadn't tried to see whether we would. I was too scared.

'I've got class Jazz – English. I'll... I'll see you after.' I gulped on the prospect of there being no '_after_', shaking my head slightly I threw on a grin – however false it may be – and headed off to class.

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I sat there in my seat, tensely waiting for any sign that we had a new classmate. And we did. She came in and handed a slip of paper to Mr Berty then followed his instruction to find a seat. She slowly started walking down the aisles making a bee-line for me. Uh oh. She continued to walk straight towards me. Then paused by my desk,

'Is it alright if I share your desk – it's the last spare seat...' She asked me. _Great_. Why had I sat here? Why hadn't I sat next to Angela or... even _Jessica_!

'Yer... yer sure.' I managed to squeak out. She looked at me as if wondering whether she should sit next to such a freak.

The rest of the lesson seemed to stretch on forever, every move she made caused me to tense or flinch. Every tap of her fingers on the table rattled me more and more.

When the bell finally rang, I was relieved but I expected something to happen too. Instead she snatched up her bag and books and ran out of the classroom while everyone else was still sitting in their seats.

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Edward POV

I was in the dining room, flicking at the disgusting food on my plate in front of me when I first saw her myself. She was sitting across the room from my family's table, her back was towards me but as she turned to respond to Jessica's dim-witted questions I was able to catch a glimpse of her face. Her curly brown hair was neatly framing her face when something hit my shin. Quite hard.

'Shit! What was that for?' I exclaimed, looking around the table to find out who the culprit was.

_Will you listen to me? God, you're so bloody annoying Edward, so self obsessed!_

I coughed while trying to swallow a chunk of the apple I had bitten as she thought this,

'Me? Self-obsessed! Fuck off Alice, I think you forgot that you're sitting next to _Rosalie_.' I snickered as everyone looked over to see Rose checking her make up in the mirror... _again_.

'What? Oh god, there isn't a piece of chicken wrap in my hair again? I hate it when Eric starts throwing food around, he's such a moron.' Rosalie asked worriedly. Only Emmett had the heart to quell her fears of the dreaded chicken wrap, that was one fiasco I really didn't want to repeat, but Eric's face was priceless - Emmett was a pretty big guy after all.

'Well, what is it then Alice?'

'What are your first thoughts on _her_ then?' She whispered.

'Ermm, I don't know...'

'Edward! Look at her and tell me if you think she's gonna jump on me and kill me in the next 30 seconds or something.' I burst out laughing at that, earning myself a glare from Alice and _another _kick to my shin.

_Just look at her already! What do you think?_

'She look's...' I glanced over to see her pushing her hair out of her face as she laughed at something Jess was saying...

Beautiful.

**What the hell? What did you just say? Did you just say bea-**

Shut up. No. Of course not! I mean... shit.

**You do know she's trying to kill your sister! Stop crushing on girls the first time you see them, people will start to think you're a man-whore.**

Oh, fuck off.

**You do know you're telling yourself to fuck off, right?**

Shut up.

'... she has nice hair?'

Emmett just burst out laughing slapping a hand on my back,

'Smooth man, smooth.'

For the rest of lunch I tried to distract myself from Bella, I don't know why but it seemed my head always turned towards her of its own accord. Something in me was attracted to her. And then as my head moved like a magnetic to my right as she walked behind me to dump her food tray, busy chatting to Angela, I realised what it was about her. Or rather in her. Blood. It had taken years, decades, nearly a whole century for me to control my thirst, and in a matter of seconds it had nearly slipped away completely.

Her blood. I could smell it, hear it, virtually see it pumping through her porcelain pale skin. And I couldn't look away, hell it was luring me closer until suddenly I realised that I was standing on the other side of the room and I'd grabbed hold of her wrist.

'And hello to you too. You could have just said hello instead of watching me all lunch you know.' She said while looking at my hand that remained clenched around her wrist.

Shit.

I quickly, yet grudgingly released her from my grasp and took a step back.

'Sorry, I'll just...' And before she could say anything else I took off, out of the dining room and into the car park.

**You are such a moron Cullen.**

You don't need to remind me.

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**A/N: Who can guess which band has the song title 'Fresh Blood'? ;)**

** Hope you liked it :)**

** carliecullenx**


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